Daily Archives: September 12, 2012

[Resentment over what we have done there may cause a wave of reprisal killings and militant actions. In this case, embassy guards came under heavy, concentrated fire. This were not merely the actions of an enraged mob; this was a military action.]

U.S. envoy Chris Stevens listens during a news conference held by leaders of Libya’s rebel leadership after talks with representatives of the African Union in Benghazi April 11, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Esam al-Fetori

By Hadeel Al Shalchi

BENGHAZI, Libya

(Reuters) – The U.S. ambassador to Libya and three embassy staff were killed in an attack on the Benghazi consulate and a safe house refuge, stormed by Islamist gunmen blaming America for a film they said insulted the Prophet Mohammad.

Gunmen had attacked and set fire to the U.S. consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi, the cradle of last year’s uprising against Muammar Gaddafi’s 42-year rule, late on Tuesday evening as another assault was mounted on the U.S. embassy in Cairo.

California-born ambassador Christopher Stevens was killed in the assault, but it was not clear how or where he died. U.S. consular staff were rushed to a safe house after the initial attack, Libya’s Deputy Interior Minister Wanis Al-Sharif said.

An evacuation plane with U.S. commandos units then arrived from Tripoli to evacuate them from the house.

“It was supposed to be a secret place and we were surprised the armed groups knew about it. There was shooting,” Sharif said. Two U.S. personnel were killed there, he said. Two other people were killed at the main consular building and between 12 and 17 wounded.

The attack raised questions about the future U.S. diplomatic presence in Libya, relations between Washington and Tripoli, the unstable security situation in post-Gaddafi Libya and whether more protests might erupt in the Muslim world over the film.

The amateurish film, promoted by a U.S. pastor, portrayed Mohammad as a fool, a philanderer and a religious fake. In one clip posted on YouTube, Mohammad was shown in an apparent sex act with a woman.

For many Muslims it is blasphemous to depict the Prophet and the incident had echoes of the publication in a Danish newspaper of cartoons that touched off riots in the Middle East, Africa and Asia in 2006 in which at least 50 people died.

U.S. President Barack Obama, whose administration supported the Libyan insurgency with funds, weapons and training, branded the killing an “outrageous attack” and ordered increased security at U.S. diplomatic posts worldwide.

“SMALL AND SAVAGE GROUP”

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the attack was the work of a “small and savage group” not the government or people of Libya.

Descriptions of the consulate attack described chaos and bloodshed, with Libyan security over-run and retreating.

“We started shooting at them, and then some other people also threw hand-made bombs over the fences and started the fires in the buildings,” said 17-year-old Hamam, who took part in the assault and refused to give his last name.

“There was some Libyan security for the embassy outside but when the hand-made bombs went off they ran off and left,” said Hamam, who said he saw an American die in front of him in the mayhem that ensued. He said he his body was covered in ash.

The attack was believed to have been carried out by Ansar al-Sharia, an al Qaeda-style Sunni Islamist group that has been active in Benghazi, a Libyan security official said. Witnesses said the mob also included tribesmen, militia and other gunmen.

Ansar al-Sharia cars arrived at the start of the protest but left once fighting started, Hamam said. “The protesters were running around the compound just looking for Americans, they just wanted to find an American so they could catch one.”

On Wednesday, the sprawling, leafy compound in Benghazi stood empty, with passers-by freely walking in to take a look at the damage and the heat of the fires could still be felt.

Walls were charred and a small fire burned inside one of the buildings with glass from shattered chandeliers on the floor. A small group of men was trying to extinguish the flames and three security men briefly surveyed the scene.

A Reuters reporter saw chairs, table and food lying alongside empty shells. Some blood stains could also be seen in front of one of the buildings. Three cars were burnt out.

Benghazi residents argued among themselves about whether the attack was right or wrong.

One man, walked by and simply said: “We showed the Italians in 2006 and now the Americans saw what we did.” He was referring to the storming of the Italian embassy over a perceived insult to Islam.

UNPREPARED FOR HEAVY ATTACK

“The Libyan security forces came under heavy fire and we were not prepared for the intensity of the attack,” said Abdel-Monem Al-Hurr, spokesman for Libya’s Supreme Security Committee.

Western leaders and officials joined condemnation of Tuesday’s assault as did Lebanon’s Shi’ite militant group Hezbollah.

A Danish newspaper caused a storm of protest across Islamic nations in 2005 by printing cartoons lampooning Islam and the Prophet Mohammad in 2005, the most famous depicted him wearing a bomb in his turban.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai sharply condemned the film in a statement, calling its making a “devilish act”, saying he was certain those involved in its production represented a very small minority.

Afghanistan shut down the YouTube site so Afghans would not be able to see the film.

U.S. ambassadors in such volatile countries as Libya are accompanied by tight security, usually travelling in well-protected convoys. Diplomatic missions are usually protected by Marines or other special forces.

Stevens grew up in California, graduated from Berkeley and worked in North Africa as a Peace Corps volunteer. He taught English in Morocco before joining the foreign service where he worked in the Middle East and North Africa.

Airport sources said the bodies were due to be flown from Benghazi to Tripoli.

Libya’s interim government has struggled to impose its authority on a myriad of armed groups that refused to lay down their weapons and often take the law into their own hands.

Security experts say the area around Benghazi is host to a number of Islamist militant groups who oppose any Western presence in Muslim countries.

The worst-case scenario for Western governments is that a spate of recent attacks could be the start of an Iraq-style insurgency by Islamist militants. That could have an impact on oil exports as the energy sector depends on foreign workers.

However, security analysts say an insurgency is unlikely to gain the kind of traction it had in Iraq, mainly because Western states have no military presence on the ground in Libya.

Libyan Deputy Prime Minister Mustafa Abu Shagour condemned the killing of the U.S. diplomats as a cowardly act. The head of Libya’s national assembly vowed to bring the killers to justice.

U.S. PASTOR

U.S. pastor Terry Jones, who had inflamed anger in the Muslim world in 2010 with plans to burn the Koran, said he had promoted “Innocence of Muslims”, which U.S. media said was produced by an Israeli-American property developer.

Jones, a pastor in Florida whose latest stunt fell on the anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, triggered riots in Afghanistan in 2010 with his threat to burn the Koran.

Many Muslims consider any depiction of the Prophet as offensive and any depiction of him can cause furious protests in the Islamic world as well as among Muslims in Europe.

In neighboring Egypt, demonstrators had torn down an American flag and burned it during a protest against the film. Some tried to raise a black flag with the words “There is no God but God, and Mohammad is his messenger”.

The crowd of around 2,000 protesters in Cairo protesting against the film was a mixture of Islamists and teenage soccer fans known for fighting police and who played a part in the revolt that toppled Egypt’s leader Hosni Mubarak last year.

Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Church condemned in a statement some Copts living abroad who it said financed “the production of a film insulting the Prophet Mohammad”, an Egyptian state website said. About a 10th of Egypt’s 83 million people are Christian.

The fortress-like U.S. mission in Cairo is near Tahrir Square, where Egypt’s uprising began and the scene of many protests since. Youths danced and chanted football songs. A Reuters reporter said they appeared to climb into the embassy compound almost as an afterthought.

“We sacrificed dozens and hundreds during the uprising for our dignity. The Prophet’s dignity is more important to us and we are ready to sacrifice millions,” said mosque preacher Mohamed Abu Gabal who joined the protest.

On the left: Zhanybek Bakiev – brother of former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev. Is in the Interpol database

In recent weeks, relations between Kyrgyzstan and Belarus, sheltered fugitive Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, becoming more intense. Bishkek has withdrawn its ambassador from Minsk, talking about the possible severance of diplomatic relations. At the request of “Fergana” prospects for conflict analyzes Head of the Department of Central Asia and Kazakhstan of the Institute of CIS countriesAndrei Grozin .

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The conflict broke out after the press photos were brothers fled Kyrgyz President Zhanysh Bakiyev, who is accused in the homeland of many crimes, including personal involvement in the torture and murder of Medet Sadyrkulov, former Secretary of Security Council of Kyrgyzstan. In photos president’s brother was captured in Minsk .

Last week it became clear that Kazakhstan law enforcement in the border village of detained former Bakiyev officials, who are searching the home of a criminal offense. Officer during the arrest showed a passport in the name of the Republic of Belarus Pazyla Tashbaeva, born in 1955, native of Almaty, issued in 2011 Pervomaiskii police department of Minsk, though his real name of the detainee – Payzulla Rakhmanov. Thus, it became clear that the Belarusian secret services not only provide shelter Bakiyev, but help them hide, providing false documents.

In response to the protests in Bishkek and rallies near the Belarusian Embassy, ​​Minsk made ​​it clear that the response may inhibit the entry of Kyrgyzstan into the Customs Union and the Common Economic Space. According to Alexander Lukashenko on September 1, “we give them (Kyrgyzstan – Ed.) Once said:” When you go all the way to present a single economic space – and an array of instruments that have been developed, they must adhere to these documents, agreements, they have to be inside to digest and to ratify and make their own laws – when you pass it a long way, then consider and make a decision, you will be members of a single economic space or not. Consider. A desire why not support it? Aspire, we support this. But you shall be a member of the future Eurasian economic union or not – this is the big question. ”

Expert Andrei Grozin believes that such initiatives Alexander Lukashenko torpedoing his Russian colleagues and myself at risk to remain in isolation as a result of:

“While it is not a fait accompli, as announced on the threat. Of course, if it is put into practice, in Kyrgyzstan it is quite frustrating, because the customs union to Kyrgyzstan – the chance to pull the economy out of the pit in which it remains for many years. Under all conditions, the membership of Kyrgyzstan in the Customs Union will give more advantages than disadvantages. But, in fact, if Lukashenko really translate their bilateral relationship problems with Bishkek in the plane braking economic integration, it will affect the project personally Vladimir Putin. It’s no secret that the Russian president continued integration with Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan – this thing is a priority. Otherwise, the process of integration that Moscow would like to see in the former Soviet Union, the pace.

Of course, it is possible that the last gesture of Minsk – just waved ritual weapons before a fight, he never will. If Alexander Lukashenko will still implement its threats to life, then stand up questions: Does Moscow wants to influence the Minsk and whether it has in reserve funds that influence.

The second question I would have said yes. The whole history of the relations between Russia and Belarus, the last three years indicate that the leverage is, and quite serious. When Russia wants, she gets her way. But the willingness of …

Of course, we should not forget that without the knowledge of Kurmanbek Bakiyev in Minsk, Moscow would not exist. In operation for removal of his covered unrest in Kyrgyzstan in 2010, the leading role played by Kazakhstan , but without the consent of the Kremlin (which then, by the way, to Bakiyev had its serious claims), it would not take place. I do not think that Putin would put pressure on Lukashenko in order to give them the Kirghiz ex-president. But with regard to attempts to torpedo extend the customs union pressure can be exerted, and very serious. True, most likely, it will be hidden, not public. But no less effective. Speculate on the topic TS EEA and Lukashenko will be difficult. Soon, Putin is expected to visit Bishkek (visit is September 20 – Ed.), And he’s probably still time mark its position on the integration processes in the post-Soviet space.

A separate question – which side will rise in this situation Kazakhstan. Nazarbayev recently warmly received in Bishkek, he signed a framework agreement on the construction of new transmission lines from Kyrgyzstan to Kazakhstan, and so on. And specially emphasized that wants Kyrgyzstan to the Customs Union. Let’s see, will be given whether to Kyrgyz law enforcement agencies arrested Viktor Chernomyrdin.

However, on the day in Astana visited Islam Karimov, who has made ​​it tough statements about future hydropower projects in Central Asia. Karimov was referring to the Tajik Rogun, but also the Russian project with the construction of Kambarata cascade. Nursultan Nazarbayev of him not distanced himself , though perhaps just was careful with his excitable colleague.The fact that the actions of Nazarbayev is a tactic, and that – strategy, we also soon find out. But what exactly is the ideologist Nazarbayev Education Eurasian supranational education in the former Soviet Union, too, must not be forgotten. He would not like if the idea of a Eurasian Union jeopardize of tactical reasons.

It is possible that this issue will be discussed at the summit of CICA (Conference on interaction and confidence building measures in Asia). The summit of the organization, initiated by Nazarbayev, soon to be held in Kazakhstan. In general, I think, and Astana and Moscow will now interested to extinguish the conflict between Minsk and Bishkek, or at least make it not be made public, “- concluded Andrei Grozin.

ASTANA, September 12 – news agency Novosti-Kazakhstan. Five suspected terrorists killed and one wounded in a special operation in the village of Kulsary Atyrau region, civilian casualties there, said on Wednesday, the General Prosecutor of Kazakhstan. According to authorities, on September 12 in a multi- houses of the 1st district police officers installed several individuals involved in the activities of a terrorist group, one of whose members are 21-year-Nurlybek Sakauov died Sept. 5 in the manufacture of improvised explosive devices in Atyrau. Found that Sakauov hatched the idea of committing acts of violence against law enforcement officers. In this incident and instituted criminal case under Articles 24 and 233 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan (Preparation for terrorism). An investigation established and with the sanction of the court arrested four accomplice to the crime. “In this regard, in order to arrest and neutralization of terrorist groups in Kulsary was declared anti-terrorist operation in its area of introduced special legal regime, the evacuation of residents and put a cordon” – said in a statement. Before taking any actions of the special services of the blocked persons committed undermining several explosive devices, as well as by special forces opened fire with guns. One person was injured. “Based on a special operation at the scene found five bodies and one person with serious injuries. Victims and victims among the civilian population does not, “- said the agency. currently under examination of the scene, as well as other urgent investigation and search operations.

A spokesperson of the Baloch Liberation Army has informed the Online News that fighters from his Organisation have killed an active member of the Musallah Defa Tanzeem, a government back civilian death squad, headed of Shafiq Mengal.

According details Jiand Baloch, a spokesperson of the BLA said, Mohammad Ali aka Parvez Painter was an active member of the Musallah Defa Tanzeem that is why fighters from his Organisation have killed him in Azad Chowk area of Khuzdar town in Balochistan.

He further said on 30 August another spy of state forces, Abdul Khaliq Baranzai, was attacked and injured. He warned the members of civilian death squads working for state forces to mince their ways otherwise they will not be forgiven.

Baloch activists on Facebook and Twitter have accused Parvez Painter of spying against Balach Waheed Baloch, a 13 year old member of Baloch Student Organisaiton –Azad who was abducted from Khuzdar and later killed under custody. The Musallah Defa Tanzeen had accepted responsibility for abducting the young student and his killing.

A group of Syrian Kurdish soldiers under the Kurdish National Council. Photo: KNC.

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The Kurdish Supreme Council in Syria is planning to establish a military force that would include armed groups from all parties in Syrian Kurdistan.

The move follows an announcement by some deserters of President Bashar al-Assad’s army of the creation of a force known as the Syrian National Army (SNA).

The SNA has apparently called on Kurds to join them.

“We are trying to establish an army for Syrian Kurdistan and are seriously working toward that end,” said Ismael Hama, a member of the Kurdish Supreme Council.

The Supreme Council was formed in July after an agreement between various Syrian Kurdish groups was made in Erbil.

The dominant force in Syrian Kurdistan is now the Democratic Union Party (PYD) who politically and militarily controls the Kurdish areas which Assad’s forces have retreated from to fight rebels in Aleppo and other areas of Syria’s Sunni Arab heartland.

Many perceive the PYD to be close to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) that has been fighting the Turkish state for three decades, demanding political and cultural rights for the country’s Kurds.

Aldar Khalil, a senior leader in the PYD and member of the Supreme Council, told Rudaw that the armed units of his group and other Kurdish parties have agreed to join together as the armed forces of Syrian Kurdistan.

So far, the Kurdish Supreme Council has refused to join the opposition umbrella organization known as the Syrian National Council (SNC) as Kurds are highly suspicious of whether its components would grant Kurdish rights in any post-Assad arrangement.

The Kurds have not also allowed the Free Syrian Army (FSA) to gain access to Kurdish areas. This refusal to allow any interference has brought them the ire of the FSA and SNA but spared the Kurdish areas from the devastation experienced by much of the rest of the country.

“We try to keep Syrian Kurdistan safe from the conflict and try to not become part of the disputes between various groups,” said Khalil. “The Kurdish question in Syria is a particular and different question. We want to have our own administration like the Kurdistan Region (of Iraq).”

“We do not oppose the Syrian opposition or the SNA. We are part of the opposition but our way of struggle is different,” added Khalil. “We cooperate and offer them humanitarian aid to treat the wounded or help refugees cross Kurdistan’s borders. We want our relations to be political and friendly, not military.”

Earlier this month, around 400 officers and soldiers who had defected from the Syrian Army gathered inside Turkey, near the Syrian border, to establish the SNA. The new army includes the FSA and all other armed groups currently fighting the Assad regime.

The SNA is said to be the result of a French-Turkish agreement encouraged by the U.S. and Arab countries.

Khalil said the Syrian opposition “regularly” calls on the Kurds to join the FSA, and now the new army.

“But we have told them that although we are all in opposition to the Syrian regime, we do not want them to come to the Kurdish areas because we do not need any armed forces and can protect our areas,” he said.

The PYD’s armed forces had previously said they would not allow any armed elements to operate in the areas they control. The group did not even allow a force of several hundred Kurds who had defected from the Assad army and been trained in Iraqi Kurdistan to return to Syria.

PYD officials say they do not want foreign aid and will not allow the Kurdish areas of Syria to become a battleground.

For his part, Ismael Hama, also a senior official at the Kurdish Democratic Party of Syria, said he was not aware of the formation of a new army, adding that Kurds would not want to join any such group.

“We want to form a Kurdish army and once we do that then we can negotiate with the Syrian National Army,” said Hama.

He added that the Kurds hope to continue the Cairo talks with the rest of Syrian opposition to reach a “clear agreement.”